British doping ultimatum

Sports Writer

Team Sky's best known rider, Bradley Wiggins (right), during the 2012 Tour. Photo: Reuters

ALL riders, coaches and staff at British professional cycling outfit Team Sky have been given an ultimatum: sign a declaration that they have no involvement in, or history of, doping - or leave.

Anyone who signs and is found guilty of a breach - including past involvement in doping - will have their contracts terminated. The move announced by boss David Brailsford in London yesterday will also see all 80 riders and staff at Sky interviewed in a concerted effort to make the team clean in the fallout of the Lance Armstrong scandal, and sets a benchmark for other units in the pro ranks.

Brailsford, who said he had no idea what the initiative could mean for the team in terms of losing cyclists and staff, said the ''honest and frank'' discussions had begun.

Michael Barry has already walked away from Team Sky and recently confessed to doping while on the notorious US Postal Service unit. Team Sky has also severed ties with doctor Geert Leinders, who had been a part-time employee, after his reported association with doping.

Rogers was identified in an affidavit given by American cyclist Levi Leipheimer as a rider who attended two training camps with disgraced doctor Michele Ferrari, who orchestrated the systematic doping at Armstrong's US Postal team and has been banned from the sport for life. But Rogers said last week he had never been offered drugs by Ferrari or used drugs.

Sky sports director Sean Yates raced with Armstrong between 1992 and 1996, and was sports director at the Discovery Channel team in 2005 when Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France, but has also denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

In a statement the Team Sky said: ''We want a team in which riders are free of the risks of doping and in which fans - new and old - can believe without any doubt or hesitation. There is no place in Team Sky for those with an involvement in doping, whether past or present. This applies to management, support staff and riders.''

Chief executive of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, Aurora Andruska, applauded Sky's initiative yesterday. ''They are businesses, and they are wanting to have clean teams, and I think whatever they can do to ensure that they've got that is what they need to do,'' she told The Age.

''I would certainly encourage anything like that. It encourages athletes, riders, to be clean. And coaches … it's got to be set from the top.''